Knowing there was no power at the shop, Ben and I slept in a little bit on Friday. We met up around 10 to discuss the tasks that needed to be replicated with precision for our chair, and how we were going to build the jigs to do so. This was a great discussion, and we feel confident that our jigs can be successful. We worked for about two hours on this, and then headed off to meet Sid, Ben’s pledge brother. We needed to meet up with him in order to pay for our safari we scheduled for Saturday. We ended up having lunch and dinner together, and Sid even stayed in our hotel in order to make the pickup for today easier.
The reason Sid is here is to work on a project he built during one of his classes this semester. What he created was a butter churner out of bicycle parts. When he began this project, he researched carefully about the needs and abilities of a local Massai village. Everyone he talked to here in Arusha said the village owned bicycles, could waste some of their milk, and that there was a market for butter. The first day he arrived here, he found out that all three of these facts were wrong, making his project completely null. He has spent the last six weeks researching needs of the village and learning about their lifestyle so that other students could solve some of their problems.
So yesterday, after getting all of our business done, we were bored and decided that we would go try to find a movie theater. We took a daladala to the Cinema were we hung around till the movie began. This area was an extremely muzungu place, and I felt like we were in a courtyard of somewhere in the Southwest US. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2. It was relaxing to separate ourselves for a bit from feeling like we were in Africa. Was it something that pampered American guys might do? Yes. But was it worth it? Totally!
We got up this morning at 5:30 to begin our Safari. The three of us went, along with Rob. I may have mentioned him before in little detail. Rob, and his wife Barbara, are in the Volunteer Service Association (the New Zealand Peace Corp). The were in Arusha 22 years ago working on an agriculture, and are taking a vacation to reconnect with lost friends, as they had lived here for two and a half years. They are working on the beginning stages of opening an orphanage for an area thirty minutes outside of Arusha.
The safari was a simple, one day trip to Ngorongoro Crater. I believe it is the largest crater in the world, and a simply amazing area. I hope to post pictures soon. We saw zebra, ostrich, buffalo, gazelle, two lioness’, hippos, and elephants. From a far distance, and on binoculars, we caught sight of a couple rare black rhinos. The driver assumed we would see them again, so didn’t drive to that area where they were (what I believe to be the biggest mistake of the day). But its tough to complain after the amazing day we had, and after the best meal of chicken, orange slices, bananas, hardboiled eggs, rice, cornbread cake, and some really good bread. I almost got injured during lunch, as I was walking around eating my chicken. I was enjoying the scenery, when the guide yelled at me to get down on the ground. I was confused, and it took a while, but finally I got on the ground. What had happened was that a red kite, a type of eagle, had begun to dive towards my chicken/hand to grab it. Apparently they are known to do this, so you must eat your food sitting down so that they don’t have an angle of attack in which the can continue their flight in one nice swoop. Many times people resist the grabbing of their food, so the red kites have become used to attacking both the hand and the food. I probably wouldn’t have given up my chicken without a fight…and I would have lost.
I plan on spending my day tomorrow working on the design of the jigs, and preparing a list of what needs to be done and in what order to streamline our project. I have learned from 2.007 (Design and Manufacturing I) that I work much better in the shop if I have a step by step guide for what I need to do when I get to the shop. So Ill write one of those up tomorrow, and probably walk around town for a bit as well. It should be an interesting week, and hopefully we will have user testing begin on Tuesday!
Its 9-6 Cardinals. Also, I have seen a St. Louis Blues Cap, a St. Louis Rams polo shirt, a Mizzou shirt (a while ago), a SLU Health Care shirt, and even at one stand, 6 or 7 new winter beanies with the Mizzou Tiger on it.
